The Yahoo! Internet Life Film Festival was unceremoniously cancelled due to “a downturn in the economy, an impending writers’ and actors’ strike, and limited availability of sponsorship dollars.” Festival director Heather Kellog sent a hastily written and apologetic letter to all filmmakers involved. Essentially, the online competition will continue, but the physical festival itself, the one that takes place outside of cyberspace which would have included screenings at the Director’s Guild, will not take place. Still at issue is whether filmmakers will have their entry fees returned and if sponsors will get their money back. Here is the official statement regarding the situation…
From Yahoo! Internet Life Online Magazine in New York: ^ The Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival (www.yilfilmfestival.com), originally scheduled to take place in Los Angles on March 21 – 22, has shifted its concentration to the online components of the festival. Yahoo! Movies (http://movies.yahoo.com), our official online sponsor, will continue to showcase our competition entries. The competition, open to the public and originally scheduled to end this week, will now continue through March 15. Our jury of industry insiders will cast their votes in upcoming weeks. Winners will be announced on March 22. ^ The decision to cancel the live portion of the festival was due to a number of recent factors. They include the recent downturn in the economy, an impending writers’ and actors’ strike, and limited availability of sponsorship dollars. ^ “We are continuing to remain true to our mission by focusing on the online component of the festival,” says Andrew Kramer, publisher of Yahoo! Internet Life, a Ziff Davis Media publication.
